New tax initiatives this year could provide revenue to reverse tuition hikes and change the direction our state is headed. But as we write to you, Gov. Brown and UC President Yudof are in back room talks about a state budget deal that could increase our tuition again.

Please click here to demand Gov. Brown and the Legislature instead reverse UC, CSU, and community college tuition hikes in the state budget:

If the new tax initiative passes in November, California will have $9 billion in new revenue. That’s $2.1 billion more than the governor said would balance his proposed budget! But despite a 300% increase in tuition over the last 10 years — we still have no commitment from the Governor or the Legislature to reverse tuition hikes and invest in the University of California, California State University, and community college systems.

Sign our open letter and join students across the state by calling on Sacramento to reduce tuition to 2010 levels in the May budget:

It now costs a middle-class family more to send a child to a UC or CSU than Harvard or Yale¹, and student protests against exorbitant tuition increases have been front page news for months. On March 5th, more than 10,000 students from all over the state descended on Sacramento and rallied for more funding.

How has Sacramento’s responded? Published reports indicate Gov. Brown and UC officials are considering a secret deal that could raise tuition another 15% over the next four years.² In response, student organizations, labor unions, and grassroots organizers from all over the state have come together and signed an open letter demanding that Sacramento decrease tuition and refund education and essential services in the May budget.

The letter will be much more powerful if we can add teaching assistants, research assistants, readers, tutors, and students like you to the list of signatories. Please join us by signing the letter here:

What does Sacramento think is more important than lowering student tuition? Paying back Wall Street bondholders on an accelerated payment schedule, that’s what. California’s politicians have presided over an unconscionable dis-investment in public universities. The Master Plan for Higher Education, enacted by Gov. Brown’s father in 1960, made our public education system the envy of the world. Now that dream is in shambles.

Please sign our open letter now to make Sacramento prioritize higher education funding: